The V's Have It
by Mushroom Scribe
Summary: Out of coin and out of options, Kvothe knocks on the only door left that might still open: Devi's.  The gaelet is willing to put him up until he can pay her off... but what will it do to their relationship?  What is it to begin with?  AU Kv/Dv, squicks
1. Blood And Rain

**The V's Have It**  
>(KingKiller Chronicles fanfiction) by... "MS"<p>

Warning: To those of you who squick easily... this may not be for you. In the later chapters, anyway.

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><p><em>Chapter One - Blood And Rain<em>

"How can I TEHLU ANYWAY."

This disjointed sentence was the first thing out of Devi's mouth when she yanked open her door, the initial greeting dying on her pouty lips in favor of a curse when she took in the state of her customer. Who, to be succinct, was me.

"Evening, M'lady. I take it you're willing to make donations to the church?"

"Get inside," she hissed, small hand lashing out and snatching me up and into her bedroom-that-doubled-as-an-office.

"If you insist," I quipped; it was a bit late for me not to.

"Blackened death, you're dripping all over my floor," she growled, pixielike features a mask of outrage. "You had to get yourself whipped bloody and THEN come over here in the rain, didn't you?"

"How else am I supposed to impress you?"

"Come on."

In a matter of seconds she had me undressed and washing up. I was impressed that her cubbyhole happened to have its own bath; I'd always assumed she popped downstairs to the butcher shop.

"Now then," she said from the other side of the door. "Care to tell a lady what you've been up to?"

"Not really, but I don't suppose that's very practical as you've already drawn me the bath, eh?"

"You dimwit." There was a twinge of amusement lurking beneath her exasperation, but she wasn't about to let me play with it any. "This is likely about money?"

"No, it isn't. Or it is, as everything is in one way or another."

"My patience wears thin."

I lingered over drying off my cuts, giving myself an excuse to try and find a polite, less-sickening way of phrasing it. And I failed, so then I barreled ahead, "I'm expelled."

"Finally," she sighed with mock relief. "My bile has been churning over when it might at long last happen."

"It's not funny."

"No, it isn't. But you'll forgive me if I don't feel all that sorry for you, as I've been through much the same." We were both silent for a moment before she asked, "So... how'd you manage it?"

"Trying to pay you back. They caught me sneaking into the Archives. Took my specially-designed sympathy lamp, too; Master Kilvin is probably the most disappointed out of all of them."

"But you did find a way in?"

"Sure. Too bad they'll have bricked it up by the time we could take another crack at it."

She sighed. "Oh, Kvothe... I could've told you not to try it. But then again, I wanted you to succeed, as well. For my own selfish reasons. Ugh, I feel partly responsible now."

"Devi," I sighed as I came around the corner, wearing my only other set of clothing I owned. "It's like this. I'm willing to become your indentured slave for an indeterminate period."

"Really?" Her eyebrows remained hiked for a long moment until she arrived at my point. Then they drew to a focus between her eyes as she folded her twiglike arms. "Oh, no you don't. I'm not going to make it that easy on you."

"There's really no other option, here," I said bitterly.

"So you don't have ANY money?" she gaped. "Any at all, not even a stray copper jot? Tattered fates, Kvothe!"

"Everything was riding on my breaking into the Stacks; I'd be able to complete my studies, and you'd get paid off, and my luck would have turned around. But no, it keeps on turning - like milk in the sun."

"And now you've turned up on my doorstep, begging for handouts," she seethed. "I knew it. I knew I'd never see one thin shim of that money I gave you, you senseless, ignorant-"

"Yes, allright, fine," I snapped. "I'm well aware of how botched this has become. It's why I'm here."

"If you were smart, you'd have already hopped a caravan out of Imre."

That brought a weary smile to my face. "I doubt there's ever been a man whom you were chasing who's evaded you, fair Devi. I don't know what I'm to do, but it seemed wiser to throw myself on your mercy and wait for you to make up your mind."

Devi's hands were clamped down hard on her elbows as she paced back and forth. "Thirty-five talents," she hissed to herself. "THIRTY-FIVE that I'll never see again. I'm a fool. A heedless fool, suckered in by a pretty face."

"If you want to prostitute me, I've no pride left. Anything, as long as I pay my debt. It's all that's left to me without the University... or Denna."

"I don't even want to know what a Denna is at this point." I looked away from her glare, and she sighed. "Have you even got yourself a room?"

"No."

"Then you can kip on my floor. _On the floor,_" she told me, laden with iron will. "No bed, not even in my bathing tub. In the morning, you will go directly to the Eolian and start singing for your supper."

I shrugged. "You've got my lute, though."

"Take it. God's body, take it!" Still in its case, it bounced off my head and into my arms, and I hardly flinched. What was one more bruise among dozens? "Probably wouldn't even fetch three jots."

"Maybe three," I joked feebly.

"If you disappear from town, Tehlu help me, I will have your blood in my hands and use it to dowse you so fast your head will spin. Clear?"

"As a bead of dew on midsummer's morn."

"Save your poetry for your lyrics, bard. The next 'Jackass, Jackass' might net you enough to pay the _interest_ on your loan, if nothing else. Put those talent pipes to good use!"

Then she bandaged my cuts, cursing at me all the while, and threw my bloodied clothes into the leftover bathwater to soak. It was a vain hope they would ever be worth wearing again, but I appreciated the notion.

It was somewhat uncomfortable sleeping there, what with a woman being so nearby - remember, whatever misfortune may have fallen onto me, I was still a fifteen-year-old boy - but the ordeal of the day had bred such a fatigue in me that I drifted off despite hearing her breathing, smelling the lavender scent in the room...

_To Be Continued_

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><p>NOTES: Hey, this is just a little something I'm trying out... I know it's not even a very original idea or anything but I couldn't make it leave me alone until I got it down on paper. What do you think?<p> 


	2. An Arrangement

WARNING: There's an assault in this chapter, and I know that's going to be hard for some people to read. Just letting you know.

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><p><em>Chapter Two - An Arrangement<em>

I was woken rudely when a client knocked on Devi's door. Grumbling about inconveniences under her breath, she bundled me into the cloak Fela had had made for me and shoved me on the far side of her canopy bed to hide her unwanted lodger from view.

Let's be honest with each other; I went back to sleep. Not truly, but I allowed myself to slumber just enough to further drive the ache from my bones without truly falling from consciousness. Thinking back, perhaps I recall money changing hands and something about back-rent, but that could have been dreams.

By the time I emerged from behind the bed to an empty room, Devi informed me that three other clients had come and gone since the first. Two of them were paying off interest, one opening a new "account". After a quick wash-up, I bolted down a piece of dried meat that I had leftover in my travelsack and headed off to the famed stage of the Eolian, where I began to play.

Off and on I took the stage, allowing generous time for others. Folks love my renditions of old classics, and a rousing chorus of "Jackass, Jackass" got me a few coppers. By the end of the day, I had about half a talent in various coin. Count Threpe urged me to come round to his place and serenade him and a few of his friends, and for the first time I seriously considered the offer; I liked the man, and as I was now in dire need of monetary influx, I told him I would next Mourning.

After a light supper at an inn nearer to Devi's side of town, I returned to the moneylender and deposited the remaining four jots onto her desk. She sighed and shot me a pitying stare before sweeping them into her hand and giving me a condescending pat on the head. I'd earned that, I suppose.

_**-0-0-0-0-0-**_

I slept fitfully behind the bed. Therefore, I can't be sure whether or not it was still night or early next morning when I heard someone pound on the desk.

"Son of a swine, I do not have it!"

"Then we can arrange something else. Do you have anything of value to pawn?"

"No! I did that to pay my interest last term!"

"Then I'm afraid we'll have to search down other avenues. Tell me, have you ever-"

"Char this. I'm not paying one thin shim! Your interest rates are outrageous and I will not tolerate it!"

With enviable fluidity, Devi's tone turned to frost. "I suggest you lower your voice, sir. Remember that I have certain collateral."

"I don't care! I refuse to be made a fool by some miserly, trussed-up, doxy tart!"

"WATCH YOURSELF!" she shouted into his face. It was then I heard a low hiss that may have been the beginning of a sympathy binding - I couldn't tell much from where I was behind the bed. But the next second, there was the clear, crisp sound of flesh striking flesh. "AH!"

"I won't pay, and I don't care about your ill-gotten collateral! I've had enough!"

There were some sounds of scuffling, and the bed creaked. Material ripped. Blinking at it, I watched Devi's hand appear over the side of the bed, scrabbling for something, but then it disappeared in the same instant that a squeak escaped her throat.

"You need be taught a lesson in manners, you, you... commoner!"

"Kvothe," Devi whispered, barely audible over the sounds of his grunting and the bedframe creaking anew. "Kvothe, please..."

"Calling out for your patron Amyr won't save you now, no matter who it is, you witch!"

Rolling to my side as quietly as I could, I looked for anything I could use; my sorry excuse for a pocketknife would be of little help. That's when I laid eyes on what Devi'd been searching out: a brick. A hefty, sizable brick. I picked it up.

"NO!" Devi gasped out. "No, no, no, merciful Tehlu, you can't do this - you'll only end up hurting all the worse from my revenge! Think about your actions!"

"I'll have the memory of this night to warm me! Now hold STILL!"

I took great care in coming to my feet, making as little noise as possible. From where I stood, I could see them through the curtains, but they likely couldn't see me - especially not the attacker, for his back was slightly turned in my direction. Not taking any time to draw aside the curtain, I lunged.

Down he went, a mass of angular limbs. Immediately afterward, I freed myself of the tangle of curtains and kicked him hard in the side, sending him to the floor. He did not stir.

For a long moment, I knelt there beside Devi's heaving form, holding the brick off to one side as if I would need it again. We both stared at the nobleman for another long moment, drawing in ragged breath after ragged breath. Once I'd decided he presented no continuing threat, I turned to Devi - and stared.

Now, perhaps you think this to be in poor taste. But I could count the occasions on which I'd seen a woman in full glory on one hand, and none of those times was I as close as this. My teenaged mind struggled to fathom her curves and valleys, the pale, supple skin in lanternlight...

"Kvothe, no..."

Brought to my senses, I maneuvered the brick in front of my face until all that was visible was her own. It was panicked and ashamed and enraged all at once. A tear leaked from the corner of her eye, though she was not crying in earnest. "Kvothe, what are you doing?"

"Covering the rest of you," I managed to sputter. "From my sight, at least. I... I'm sorry, I didn't know what to- I wanted to act sooner, but I was afraid if I was too reckless he might-"

"You acted soon enough," she said with a bleat of laughter she didn't truly feel. "The despot was given no chance to satisfy his urges."

"Are you allr..." The question petered out in my throat. "What a stupid thing to ask. Of course you aren't. Here, I'll get you some new clothes, where's-"

"Don't mind it. He only ripped my undergarment." She quickly maneuvered buttons and things into place, then sat up and slid backward to the wall, grabbing up one of her pillows and clutching it to her chest. "I... I'll be fine, I promise."

Nodding, I allowed the brick to drop over the side, not able to find the wherewithal to care if it scuffed the wall or floor on its way. Then I slid across her bed to the other side and glared down at the form. "What shall we do with Sir Hastiness?"

"Boil him in oil." Then she rubbed at her face. "I suppose you ought to go and fetch a constable for me."

"I'm not leaving you alone with that pile of excrement in here!"

"I'll be fine," she repeated, mostly to herself. "This isn't the first time it's happened. I just... I usually have better luck fending them off than this. He rushed me, I was caught unawares, and I couldn't find my brick either, and..." Her face crumpled into a shambles. "And then I felt him on my leg, the sweaty, throbbing- and I couldn't move fast enough, everything I did he responded to faster than a blink, I wanted to claw his eyes out but he had my arms pinned, so I tried to kick out with-"

"STOP!" I ordered, hand on her shoulder. She pulled away, and I fell back, stunned. "Devi... I don't know what to-"

"No, no," she sobbed, wiping her eyes furiously as she took several quick, deep breaths to steady herself. "No, you're right. This isn't the time to fall to pieces. I can do that after he's gone." She took another breath as she stared up at the canopy over her bed. "Go down the alley, turn right onto Kings and go up Fifth. You ought to run into a gent named Garnet making his rounds. I've known him for a year or more, he'll believe me without asking a bunch of asinine things."

"Here," I whispered, fetching her the brick and placing it beside her on the bed. "In any event."

"Thanks," she said with a watery smile. "Knew there was some reason I keep you around."

**_-0-0-0-0-0-_**

Off I went to fetch the man. Long story short, he was more than happy to cart off the offender, remarking that he smelled booze on his breath and that the torn and ruined unmentionable on the floor lent her claim a lot of creedence. He'd likely get banished or expelled from the University (if he was a student), and perhaps jailed or even executed for such a savage attack. Once he was out of our hair, I made to settle on the floor but she begged me not to.

"Right," I sighed bitterly. "Not comfortable with anybody in the room now. Wouldn't dream of holding it against y-"

"It's not that." She rubbed the back of her neck. "Listen... don't leap to any conclusions, but I want you to sleep in the bed with me."

"EH?"

"You honor my wish with the greatest of ease," she told me flatly with a glare. "Please... for my peace of mind, it would be nice to have someone I trust at hand. I can trust you, can't I?"

"Perfect gentleman," I assured her.

"Good. I propose this arrangement; you'll remain fully clothed, as will I. And..." Fingertips presed to her thin lips. "And if it doesn't prove to be a fatal mistake, we can continue doing so until you have paid your debt. I get security, and you get to use an actual mattress. Fair?"

"More than." My voice was nervous. "Only that... well, I've never kipped in a bed with anybody before."

Her eyes narrowed. "After what happened here tonight, surely you're not entertaining any possiblity that we'll-"

"God's charred body, no!" I yelped. "What he did was disgusting, and I hope his bits and pieces rot away in prison. I'd never take an unkind hand to you, at the very least because you've earned my respect among a thousand other reasons! But with that said, you are still..."

Frowning, she put a gentle hand to my arm. "You're kind to a fault, Kvothe the Bloodless. And awkward to a fault, as well." Then she chanced a smile. "Now, what's this I hear of you respecting me? I must be going about my business all wrong if I'm earning _that_."

"It's a grudging respect."

"Ah. That's more tolerable."

_To Be Continued..._

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><p>NOTE: So that's a little hard to take, I know, but there's even weirder stuff around chapter 5 or 6 coming. Fun stuff between now and then, though. Whee!<p> 


	3. Gentle Hands In Innocent Locations

_Chapter Three - Gentle Hands In Innocent Locations_

So I began sleeping with Devi - in only the strictest sense.

Of course you're assuming things progressed that night. Caught up in the whirlwind of emotions that narrowly escaping victimization brings, Devi thrust herself into my arms and pleaded that I "make love feel good again" or other such. Of course, that's tripe. The last thing on either of our minds was carnal pleasure - and if it was, you might say it was in a distinctly unflattering light. So sleep we did.

That isn't to say I did not wake with her curled against my torso, or that it wasn't pleasant. Of course it was; she was soft and fragile beneath her tough exterior. I pressed my nose into her strawberry-blond hair and breathed in the scent of her (which, oddly enough, was not strawberries but merely soap; she wasted little finery on her own appearance in spite of the roaring trade she did in that little one-room above the butcher's shop). It nearly drove me up the wall. Here I was with my arms around a woman - an _older_ woman, mind, nearly one-and-a-half times my negligible age. What would she do when she woke?

But something about her presence was so comforting that I did nothing. Relaxing back into the pillow, I stroked her back, no longer mad with dismay or nervous. Ample layers of clothing separated us. There was also the matter of what she'd endured the previous night to keep my mind from wandering down dark corridors.

When at last she did wake, she gaped at me for a long moment before her mind was besieged by the horrors that had resulted in that scenario. A quiet whimper escaped her throat as she clung to my chest, but then she relaxed, and after a time her hand wandered up to my neck and stroked lightly along my skin.

"Devi?"

"Thank you for being so prone to disaster. Your bad luck has resulted in my good fortune."

On a whim, I kissed her crown, and she tensed for the briefest moment before pinching the skin on my neck; just enough to draw attention without causing pain. "None of that, now. We're not suddenly going to betroth ourselves to each other over this."

"Perish the thought, my gaelet."

For a long while we stayed thusly, and I did not force my lips on her again, nor did she pinch me. Gentle hands in innocent locations; it was peaceful. Then she sprang from the bed and began to heat water for her bath, and I busied myself checking the floor for any scratches or bloodstains from the assailant's fall.

Again, I went out and "sang for my supper" as Devi so eloquently put it. Quite a larger crowd was at the Eolian, and they were more than willing to part with a jot or two, or buy me drinks (I employed my tried and true method of ordering pretend drinks and actually being served water by the bartender, thereby saving my benefactor's money to slip into my pocket at the end of the night). A ballad I'd been composing about a girl who could not sing brought tears from nearly everyone, and I suddenly found my purse doubling. A sound three talents and then some at my disposal, I indulged in a large, filling meal and brought the remainder home to our lovable moneylender.

"Ah, that's more like it!" she said with a grin as she spied the trio of silver talents on her desk. "Better audience?"

"Better audience and better selections," I said with a shrug. "Of course, I took a bit off the top so I might have a bite to eat; you don't mind, do you?"

"As long as you didn't eat over a talent's worth," she said suspiciously. "Otherwise, who am I to bar a man from his victuals?"

"Maybe if this keeps up, I can find a smaller inn on this side of the river that'll put me up and give me a daily fee to play for them. It worked rather well for me before... well, before circumstances beyond my control yanked the good life out from under me."

Devi smiled shrewdly at him. "Yes, in light of that... perhaps you could call us even, as I have saved your hide once before. Not that I like to brag about my altruistic deeds..."

"Really?"

"A bloke came in asking about you. Said if, by some chance, I had my hands on the blood of some red-haired horse's ass that he was willing to pay for it - in MARKS."

"Ambrose," I swore. It was essentially a dirty word in my vocabulary now. "What did you tell him?"

"It was a tempting offer. If he'd asked me yesterday, I might have sold it to him due to your appalling lack of funds... bah, who am I kidding? No I wouldn't have. I'm too fond of you."

My grin was probably the stupidest one I'd ever made. "You are?"

"Down, boy!" she laughed musically. "Roiling hell, I'm only trying to say I wouldn't sell your blood to your worst enemy, even when they offered to pay double your debt!"

"Double? You turned down double my debt?"

"You had always paid your interest," she said glumly. "Now you can barely pay that, and can't scrape anything off the principal. Floundering is an ugly word, but it's an applicable one, too. Even so, I somehow couldn't sell you out... and after what you did for me last night, I know I can't. Merciful Tehlu shelter me."

I goggled at her for a moment, and she seemed amused by the attention. Then I whispered, "You may be the very last friend I have."

"Moneylenders don't make good friends, Kvothe." Her tone was serious; she was trying to warn me away from becoming too close to her. As my father always said: "There are two sure ways to lose a friend, one is to borrow, the other to lend." But how does it work when the friend in question was your moneylender _first?_

"Not always," I corrected. "Sometimes."

The glow in her cheeks was a little more modest now. "Sometimes."

_**-0-0-0-0-0-**_

A few more days passed in this way. We chatted and bemoaned our fates, she took all of my hard-earned money with that pixie smile of hers, and we bunked together in a bed scarcely large enough to hold both of us. It was cozy and strange, and what I imagined the life of the newly married to be like. I began to grow used to it, even if it chafed at times. More often than not, it was a welcome relief to have someone waiting for you to come home... even if they hold your fate in their hands.

Once or twice more she was intimidated by one of her customers, but none of them were foolhardy enough to do anything more than make idle threats and storm off. Then she would pull one of her myriad strings and land them in irons, or else make them mysteriously turn up with all the money they owed to settle their debt before vanishing from her life. I wondered at her ability to bend men and women to her will.

It saddened me to see Mola come in. I'd thought she was getting along just fine, but she had to borrow five talents for tuition and supplies, promising that as soon as her father's luck turned around she wouldn't need to borrow anything. Until then, she'd work like a dog at the Medica to earn back the five plus two in interest before end of term. Silently from beneath the bed, I begged Tehlu that her luck would not fail her as it did me.

Over a light supper, I mentioned this to Devi, and she seemed surprised. "I thought Mighty Kvothe had no time to dally with local damsels - earnestly seeking out his paramour that no one seems to know anything about."

"Gossip is going to turn you into a conspiracy theorist."

"Maybe. And you didn't answer my question. Have you designs on this Mola?"

My nose crinkled. "Are you drunk? Mola's nothing more than a friend who's stitched me back together once or twice. By that logic, I have designs on you."

A false gasp. "Was that a proposition?"

"It is open to interpretation," I said in the same cautiously-flirtatious fashion she used so often.

"Fine, be that way," she said airily, taking great pains to cut through her potato as daintily as possible. "I'm only trying to help your wounded love life along."

"Wounded l- Tehlu's blackened ass, I don't need that!"

Her laughter was enough to set my blood boiling further.

_To Be Continued..._


	4. Misplacing One's Attention

_Chapter Four - Misplacing One's Attention_

Of course, not everything bumped along so pleasantly as all that forever, but that's quite obvious from the outset. We are headed for the falls and our boat has no oars or rudder. Bear with me.

Late that night, I was having a dream, or dreams as the case sometimes is. Whatever they might have been about - Chandrian, Lorren banning me from the Archives, whippings, Denna - they woke me in a cold sweat. That's all I remember about that bit.

Now, in every young man's life there comes a time when they awaken to find themselves with a particular... let's call it a "condition". I'm trying not to be indelicate, because I consider myself a gentleman. When sharing a bed with one who's not your lover, it can be a truly harrowing experience indeed, and this was one of such times.

This was made much worse by the fact that Devi had opted to press her form against me in her slumbering state. Try telling your body to go back to sleep when another body is so nearby, feeling so warm and inviting... well, it's an uphill battle.

For a brief second, I began to panic. What if she woke up and found me that way? I considered lowering myself into the Heart of Stone, hoping it would allow me to rationalize that my situation wasn't so terribly unfortunate and that I could simply turn over in bed. But then I dismissed the idea; I should be able to handle this without such mental trickery. It _should_ be easy for me to tell myself that Devi was just a friend, and that this was only mildly amusing, and that I should laugh at my anxiety.

Of course, that was fantasy. Just as I was on point of relenting and dropping into the Heart of Stone after all, Devi shifted and snaked her arm around my waist. I tensed from top to bottom.

It woke her and she blinked up at me. "Hmm?"

"Nothing," I whispered, using all of my onstage skill to avoid looking as guilty as I felt.

"What are you doing awake?" she rasped, voice husky with sleep. It was alluring in a way I didn't quite understand, but could appreciate regardless. "You seized up and it scared me."

"Just drinking in your beauty," I said, quietly enough but with a hint of sarcasm. "It stuns a man."

"Enough," she said with a slow grin, settling against me. "Trying out your charms on me just to see if they work, only so you can run off to Mola or one of your other harlots and put them to good use."

By that point, having her so closeby while my "condition" had not faded was unbearable. Carrying on a conversation during this was equally taxing. "Uh... yes. I mean, no, never anyway!"

"Your heart is pounding like mad," she observed. "What's the matter? Bad dream? Poor baby."

"Yeah," I gusted. It was probably true, after all.

"Ah. In that case, Physicker Devi knows an age-old remedy that can make it all bet... better. Hmm?"

Both of us froze. Her hand shifted, and so did my hips. Then the hand moved to her mouth and she coughed into her fist.

"Would it help if I apologized?" I half-laughed.

"Not a great deal."

"I was trying not to bring it up, you know. Hoping we'd both doze off and never think on it again."

"One could say you've already 'brought it up', eh, Kvothe?"

My heart was plummeting at great speed. "Are you angry?"

"Curious." Devi's hand disappeared under the blanket and I gritted my teeth when I felt it return; it remained still though, resting, not clutching or manipulating. "Why this? Is it me?"

"No!" I told her hurriedly. "Though, uh... having you here isn't exactly speeding its exit, one might say."

"Mm-hmm." Now she began moving her fingers, and my mind grew hazy, as if a layer of thin cloth were being wrapped around my head. "Would you like me to speed its exit?"

"Devi..."

"Come on," she said with an impish smile playing around the corners of her brilliant green eyes. "It's a bit of fun. No one need be aware we ever did it. Think of it as training for a future enchanted evening with your intended."

It seemed wrong. It felt wrong, down deep in my gut. Part of me knew it was going to be a mistake to have an encounter of this nature with the broker - even beyond the reasons I could think of at the time. In spite of these things, I was tempted.

"I promise I'll go slow."

"No, Devi," I finally managed to rasp out. "It isn't right. Your attentions are misplaced on me. I owe you money, and we're friends. Well, after a fashion."

"Don't be so uptight," she chided. "Might you have any idea how long I go between romps? It's been about a year for me. Think about how long that is, just for a moment! And even then, it was some client who'd fallen behind in his interest payments." With a sinister grin, she whispered, "I let him slide by a talent in light of my enjoyment."

The heat in the room was beginning to make my brain melt, but I forced my mind to remain on the topic. "Haven't you ever been approached at a bar? You're young and fetching."

"Thank you, my dear." She shrugged. "Most of the men who do approach are filled to the brim with drink, and hideous besides. If a decent enough bloke happens to be there, they usually angle for the younger, prettier blonde."

"Can't be many prettier than you in Imre." I hadn't intended to say that, even though it was my honest feeling; she was lovely. It was a statement of fact, not flattery.

"A single indiscretion," she urged with both voice and touch. Her tone betrayed her mounting desire. "I like you, Kvothe. You're rakishly handsome, and you're actually a decent person underneath all that bravado and carefully-built reputation. One night together wouldn't kill us, would it?"

"It might."

"You could find yourself owing two fewer talents," she told me, tone serious even as her cheeks began to pinken. "Three."

"This is not about money," I protested. "And before you try, it's not about whether or not you're attractive, either, because I believe we have already established that. Just... I don't want to sully another friendship over a 'single indiscretion'."

Her throat worked to swallow, and her hands moved from beneath the blanket to my collarbone, kneading in. "I'll wipe out your entire debt. All the remaining thirty talents - and you can have all your collateral back."

My jaw dropped. "You sound like a sweet-eater."

"Sate my hunger, Kvothe." Her voice began to shake. "I... you must be feeling it too by now. The frustration, the need. Didn't you like what you saw a span ago? My fresh, nubile body? It hasn't changed since then."

Horrified at her referencing that ugly ordeal, I snapped, "That's not what I was-"

"No, I know you didn't," she told me hastily, cupping her hand on my jaw. "And that you wouldn't, because you're a man of great character. Even so, you still got an eyeful. You know what I have to offer you. All that separates us at this moment are a few layers of clothing and your inhibitions. Take me."

I'll admit that by this point, she was winning me over; my reasons for resisting her were growing dim and indistinct. Her face was a vision, smile dazzling, body flawless (as I she had ensured I wouldn't soon forget). All in all, Devi was a masterpiece. Why didn't I want this? "Devi... are you sure?"

Before answering, her lips crashed into mine, tongue exploring my mouth, tasting me even as I tasted her. So succulent... indeed, like a ripe strawberry. Then she drew back and beamed, simmering with energy and expectations.

"Copper-hawks are always sure."

And that was as much reluctance as I could muster. Suffice it to say neither of us had many complaints about that evening. Every inch of her was paradise, and I reveled in it.

In fact, I reveled in it several times before the sun rose.

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

><p>NOTE: Woo! So the passions flare. Next chapter will bring pain and dismay, however... ask yourself if you're ready for that.<p> 


	5. Three Fingers

_Chapter Five - Three Fingers_

Waking up beside Devi was vastly more exciting when it held the possibility of morning-after play. Never before had I wanted to leave a bed that little.

It transformed her to be with me; whereas she was always flippant and quick with a joke, now she was positively giddy and carefree when we were together. The decades upon decades of weariness that had fallen onto her shoulders in the last few years due to her leaving the University and immersing herself in the cutthroat business of loaning silver, it all fell away. She could act her own age for a brief period, or younger still, and I think that benefited her more than our actual liaisons.

And that, of course, is the end of this story. Or it would be in a more ideal world. Such a beautiful, picturesque ending. For the sake of the reader of this chronicle, I suggest you take it at that and skip ahead a few chapters to the remainder of my story and ignore this dark period to come.

And if you decide to ignore my warning, be it on your own head.

_**-0-0-0-0-0-**_

Perhaps two span later, maybe not so long as that, we had just enjoyed another frolick in her chambers. It had been a particularly lucrative day in which I earned another two talents with lute and voice, and Devi collected from several clients whom had borrowed heavily to begin with. We were rich, or as rich as two dropouts from University could hope to be with no proper careers to fall back on. Then, after we celebrated in the most primitive fashion possible, we were lying together beneath her sheets, shining with exertion and blissfully spent.

"Kvothe..."

"Eh?"

"Let's get married."

_"WHAT?"_

She giggled. "Caught you with that one."

"Too right." When she giggled anew, I dug my fingertips into her ribcage until she cackled loud enough for the butcher to pound on the ceiling. As she wiped a tear of laughter away from her eye, I asked, "What made you think about that?"

"I couldn't say," she told me easily, flopping back into her pillow, a touch breathless from multiple kinds of exertion. "Just that... would you think me insane to consider it? We do seem well-suited for each other, even if we're the only ones who believe that."

"Need we get married to enjoy each other, though?"

"Not in the strictest sense," she had to admit. "And there'd be precious few who might attend, anyway. You're right, as usual; our silver would be better wasted on a bottle of brand and a few sensual oils."

"I've been thinking about something," I told her suddenly, the only thing tying her thought and mine together being the topic of money. "When we began this, ah... 'adventure' of ours, you promised to wipe out my debt."

"You're really going to hold me to that?" she asked incredulously. "God's body, I was trying to rope you into my loins; I'd have offered to buy you the moon if I thought you'd believe me."

"Very funny." Clawing her way over to my chest, she settled against it before I continued. "Well... I did disregard it, because I've still been paying you back. And by my calculations, I've only got about four more talents left to earn."

There was a brief pause as Devi went very still. "Oh."

"And then I'd be out of your hair. That is... if that's what you wanted."

"It is, of course," she told me in a would-be disinterested tone. "You're taking up valuable space in my pitiful dwelling. How soon do you leave?"

"Stop," I sighed. "What I meant to say is, if you didn't mind putting up with me for another span or so... I'd like to save up for a more passable lute."

"You could take out another loan," she tempted me.

_"Never._"

"Okay, okay," she laughed. "Once bitten, twice shy." Illustrating her point, she sank her teeth into my chest just enough to prompt a yelp from me. "So you're saying you want to defer payment for now and devote your earnings to a better instrument?"

"Just that. A span should be long enough to get me a dozen talents or so, and giving up that in trade with my old lute... there has to be a beautiful specimen around here somewhere I can lay my hands on."

"I know where there's one." Her fingers played across my abdomen, and I let out a contented sigh. Relentless, but enticing. "But by the time you finished saving up for and buying this fabled lute of yours... term would have come to an end. You'd owe me another two talents."

"I know."

She shrugged. "You could always pay me off first and _then_ save up for your lute. Not that it's smart business practice for me to inform you of that."

"I could... but I think I'd rather upgrade my instrument first. And this way I'm guaranteed a place to sleep until I've got my lute."

"Ahh, I see your game," she said with a hint of amusement. "Free room and board until you've got a shiny new seven-string, and all thanks to Mistress Devi. Clever boy."

"Of course, I could just pay you off first so you needn't put up with me. Your call."

Devi's voice dropped to a whisper when she responded about one full minute after I last spoke. "Stay with me a little longer."

"What?"

"Get your lute," she said, closer to her usual tones. "I'll find my way to enduring your wretched face for a few more days."

_**-0-0-0-0-0-**_

So that is precisely what came to pass. Devi and I forgot my impending departure from her bed, and I played my heart out for the lords and ladies of Imre. During this time I also shopped around for a new lute, and was delighted to find a place that had a superlative one for a mere nine-and-seven, which was two talents less than I'd expected to pay. It was as if Tehlu himself had sculpted it. The next day, when I'd accumulated the needed money, I inspected it at length, played a bit, bought it, and pawned the old one for an amazing talent. I say it was amazing because my payment was double what I expected to receive for the dilapidated old piece of driftwood.

You'd think me a sentimental fool, but I actually hesitated to part with it. Old piece of driftwood or no, it was the first lute I'd bought with my own money. But I had no need of two, and I'd wager there was a young, starving musician somewhere in Imre that would find their way to the same pawn broker.

"A jug of wine, a loaf of bread," I crowed to Devi as I waltzed inside her room that eve and placed the wine and bread into her surprised arms. "And a lute fit for kings!"

"That isn't how the poem goes," she said with a grin. "But I'm happy to see you in such high spirits."

"Thought we might treat ourselves a bit."

Devi's dimples deepened. "Only if you play for me. It seems as if it's been an age since you have!"

"It was three days ago."

"You see how I mean? Play, play!"

She poured us glases of the fruit wine and after I'd had a sip or two, I took out my new instrument, tuned it meticulously, and played her a quick, jaunty tune that she could clap along with. Which she did, and she joined me on the chorus, voice sweet yet robust; she was no shrinking violet whose song litled on a breeze like strand of spider's web. I liked her that way.

Soon after we had polished off the bread and most of the wine, I swept her up in my arms and we again retired to her bed. Nearly an hour later, she lay atop me when she asked, "Where did you learn to coax that much emotion from a lute?"

I shrugged sheepishly. "The Ruh."

"The Edema Ruh?" she asked, sitting back and blinking at me. "I hadn't figured you for a vagrant."

"They are a distinguished troupe of artists and craftsmen," I defended them automatically. I'm sure she caught the flint in my gaze, because her own slid away.

"Well... yes, of course." She sighed bitterly. "Oh, it's my father speaking through me, not my own opinion. You see, my mother abandoned the both of us to run off with one of their number and he never forgave them for it. Twenty-odd years is long while to hold a grudge."

"A lot of women ran off to join the Ruh. My mother, too. I overheard my parents talking of the noble she'd been wed to before he lured her away with his raw talent and charisma."

We both laughed for a moment, struck by the the effects the same band of traveling performers had had on our lives. Similarities. Then, as one, we both glanced at each other's hair, at the quality of our gold-rimmed malachite eyes. Nimble fingers played over lips and noses as we explored, as we felt a deep tension building around us, as if a stormcloud were gathering in the midst of the room.

"Kvothe," she said quietly, haltingly, "is there- I... your mother's name." Then she held up three fingers. She put one down. She put another down, and I knew what she meant to happen. As she drew a sharp breath in preparation, she put the third one down, and we spoke in unison.

"Laurian."

_To Be Continued..._


	6. One Family

_Chapter Six - One Family_

Devi burst into tears.

It was her initial reflexive action. Her face pointed down into my chest, her body shook, and she cried. Minutes stretched on as I held her, uncertain of anything else I might do. What are the standard guidelines in this situation? I wonder.

At long last, she let out a damp giggle and said to me, "Well, this is very near Goddamned perfect, isn't it?"

"Sorry?"

"I spend all this time and effort on you, grooming you to be someone I can trust and share myself with. We were building a life here, weren't we? And then we have to think just a little too hard, drink a little too much wine... and unearth a trifling fact that would have best stayed buried."

I absentmindedly caressed her hair. Inwardly, I knew she wanted me to be the first to say it aloud, to acknowledge what we discovered. Alas, I couldn't. The words were sour on my tongue, and I couldn't force them out. No way in hell was she...

"After all these lonely years, I finally find a man who isn't quite as selfish as the rest, who might stand a ghostly chance at being a fine example of a human being... and it turns out there's a reason. He's already family. 'One family', right? Isn't that what the Ruh say? How appropriate."

Funny how I could be simultaneously disgusted and warmed by the same speech. We had blindly entered into a love that dare not speak its name, and it had been bright and honest and full of purity. Before, that is. Before we knew.

"Gods," she gasped with sudden realization as she backed away an inch or two, hand at her mouth. "How many times have we... and the whole while you were my-"

"Don't go down that road," I warned her. "Whether once or a thousand times, it won't change anything. We had no way of knowing."

"Yes we DID!" she growled, punching me in the shoulder. And I had just grown accustomed to being bruise-free... "It should have been readily apparent from the hair, the eyes, from the way we both look at life! You never found it odd that we've been getting along so well? Most people who try living together are sick to death of their roommate within the first day, and yet here we are three or four span later, happy as pigs in slop!"

My frown was somewhat resigned, even though the knot in my stomach refused to come untied. "There ARE a few red-headed folk out there in this great big world of ours; we aren't all related."

"No." That quickly, I could already sense her closing off to me, trying to distance herself. "No, this is simply what happens when I get too involved in my work. First time I let down my guard, the next thing you know I end up tupping my brother."

Despite her brave attempt to rationalize, we both flinched when she said it. BROTHER. Half-brother, more precisely, but blood all the same so one's as odious as the other. That was also the exact second when we both became painfully aware of our state of undress and the nonexistent space between our bodies.

"I'm sorry," I apologized without thinking. "Here, I can move out from under if you just-"

"Wait, don't!" she pleaded, fingernails gouging into my flesh. "Stay!"

"But... but you're my..."

"You can't even say it." A bleak little laugh came out of her, sputtered in the air and died. "So brave when giving one of your teachers a hotfoot, but you can't confront my being a sibling?"

"Half-sibling." Even that much was too much. "Tehlu anyway, this can't be true. It's felt so right the whole time, as if..."

"As if we were destined to have met? Yes, I'd say so. It's a shame to go through life unaware that you still have family."

"We ought not be in bed like this. Why don't you let-"

"NO!" When I pushed her back enough to gape openly at her face, she averted her eyes, unable to meet my own. "Kvothe... if we can't ever... if this is the last time, then I..."

My hands released, and she lowered herself onto my chest and stayed there. She wanted to remain this close for as long as we might get away with it, and I could not fault her. Even though the touch of her skin burned mine in a way far removed from how it had previously. After my arms had wrapped around her naked back, I breathed in her hair again. Strawberries this time; she'd really made scent match sight. "You smell wonderful."

"Do I, now?" she laughed. "Perfect indeed. I... I bought this perfume for you. Because we spent so much time without any elbow room, I thought it would be nice if you could smell something better than sweat and body odor."

"You've never smelled like either of those." I reconsidered. "Maybe sweat, but I've never minded the smell of that - and certainly not yours, Devi."

"Devi, Kvothe... sounds like our mother had a fascination with the letter 'V' in names. Isn't that uncommon?"

"Uncommon enough to set us apart. Or link us together."

"So the V's have it. Why didn't I see it in you the moment you walked through my door? Moreover, why didn't YOU see it in ME? Surely I must look like her in some small way."

My stomach churned anew as I looked at her. Maybe a touch, when hunting for it... but I decided not to hunt for it, and not to tell Devi, either. "N-no, not so much as you might think."

"I'm jealous, now," she told me softly. "You got Mother all to yourself for your entire life. I only have a few memories of her from when I was a baby."

Somehow, it brought all the weight down on me right then, when she said it. I missed my parents, I missed my old life. I missed having someone with whom I belonged. Maybe for a brief moment I thought I could belong with Devi, but there was a stark possibility that we would no longer be able to stand the sight of each other after this putrid scene had played itself out.

"She's dead," I told her without preamble or embellishment. "Both my parents. Happened three... almost four years ago."

A light nod from the moneylender. "Guess I'd have liked to meet her if she were still alive. For once. Don't know what else I might do about it either way."

"I'm sure she loved you," I attempted, having no way to know if I spoke the truth. "Even without being around, I'm sure." After a brief hesitation, I dropped my voice until barely audible and told her, "I know I do."

There was a slight pause as we held completely still. My body ached to enjoy the touch of hers, but my heart wouldn't let it anymore. It was sheer torture. "Love how? Like one loves a stray cat? Like one loves a finely ripened cheese?"

"Devi-"

"Like one loves a sister, Kvothe? Eh?" The anger in her words was not directed at me, but it stung all the same. "Because that's the brand of love you should hold in your heart! Not like what I hold in mine, oh no, that's altogether revolting!"

That utterly shocked me. "By God and all, what are you saying? You were the one who insisted this was going to be a 'bit of fun' and little else! How can you change your tune now?"

"Because it was never a bit of fun and you know it." A high-pitched noise issued from her throat for a moment before she sucked in a breath and said, "Kvothe, you have to feel it too. Even if we are... what we think we might be, it's too late; I'm already-"

She had to be stopped! "DEVI, NO MORE!"

"I am!" she sobbed. "Tehlu's scourging wheel, I'm already in love with you!"

Cursing, I looked away from her, tensed all over as if to flee. So vibrant and irresistible, and yet the true nature of our preexisting relationship should hold her outside my reach. Then she opens her mouth and says she doesn't care; that she's going to reach out anyway, Tehlu damn us with lightning and hellfire. Which He might just do.

_To Be Continued..._

* * *

><p><em>NOTE: <em>So yeah, I'm sorry if anyone wasn't expecting that twist and got freaked out, but it wouldn't be worth doing if I announced it ahead of time. Where's the fun in that? More torture ahead for our kissing siblings.

And I don't want to hear a bunch of "EWW INCEST", not when there's so much Twincest (HP) and Wincest (Supernatural) out there. Grow up.


	7. Mixed Bag

_Chapter Seven - Mixed Bag_

We each took turns running to her water closet and donating our suppers to Imre's famed sewage system. Each time, the person who had remained in the bedroom dressed and nothing was said about it, nor were any glances stolen at bodies. No laughter was found about a damn thing.

What was worse than the initial revelation itself, and the way it colored our relationship of the last few weeks? I'll tell you what: the fact that we still slept in the same bed. Only now there was no camaraderie, no hand-holding or cuddling or any of that. Just two terrified fools staring up into a canopy.

In the same instant, I'd found my family and lost a lover.

The next morning, we woke and stared at each other, almost as one. It ached to do it, and yet neither of us could look away; we just kept scrutinizing our faces, eyes darting here and there. Someone would whimper or make some other motion as if about to break down into fits, and the other person would automatically reach out to comfort... then draw their hand back as if singed. It was like pouring scutten into an open wound continuously. For hours.

No, we didn't talk. No, we didn't cry. Once in a while somebody would smile, in a hopeful-yet-hopeless sort of way, before the smile fell away in favor of a hollow gaze. So when I say we stared at each other, I mean it. That and little else.

Finally (thankfully), there came a knock at the door. I hid behind the bed, and Devi answered it, and she was as cheery as ever with her latest customer, who wanted to borrow several talents to pay off a bet he'd made with a bloke over a few drinks. She handed him the money, he handed her the vial of blood, and off he went.

"So," I said quietly as I reappeared.

"So," she replied tersely, snapping a desk drawer shut.

"So I'm off to the Eolian."

"Good luck. Not that you need it."

"Right."

My hand was inches from the doorknob when she hissed, "I'll miss you."

"You will not."

"I will." Her voice was no louder than before, and yet I still felt like she was shouting. "I miss you when you're away."

"I miss you when you're right in front of me," I countered. My voice broke as I said it, and then my heart was seconds from rupturing so I left.

Then I took the stage, strummed a few foot-tapping melodies for the masses. I did this all through the day, taking my cue to play when no one else was disposed to. That is, until late in the evening when there was a large crowd there, and one bloke had just earned his talent pipes after two span of repeated attempts.

I tuned my lute and started playing "Tinker, Tanner", just a little something to liven their mood as well as my own. Halfway through it, I completely fell apart. I could taste the audience's shock; they wanted to know why one of their regulars, who was normally so dependable a source of cultured entertainment, had suddenly contracted stage fright. I didn't know why. Or I did, but I was more surprised than they that I was allowing it to interfere with my art.

So then I did something I've never done before or since. I sat down and wrote a song in full view of onlookers.

At first, I thought Stanchion would pull me off the stage for doing something so stupid. It really was, you know; the Eolian was a place to display one's skill, not cobble it together. But all were silent. I played and played, everything pouring out of me; not just Devi, but the lingering aches of losing my parents, and the streets and backalleys of Tarbean, and Denna's desertion, and being whipped, banned, expelled. But it all rested beneath a patina that was the complications of Devi.

My whole life taken together, and I called it "Mixed Bag".

I could spot the true music lovers in the crowd when I was through; they were the ones applauding enthusiastically, wiping their eyes, nodding to themselves as if they understood - because in some small way, they could. My feelings showed through. The others who nudged each other and spoke in quiet whispers as they politely clapped, they were the casual listeners, the ones who came to be seen by the right element or merely to enjoy a drink with friends. They probably thought my abstractly invented instrumental was well done, but couldn't grasp why I had switched to it in the middle of a common bar tune. Which was more than fair, as neither did I.

The tips didn't pour in from all comers that eve. However, one or two of those with a genuine ear for the lute took me aside and pressed more than enough coin into my hand to make up the slack. When I answered their questions and stated the name of my new "masterpiece", they smiled wistfully and agreed; one of them suggested I change it to "Bittersweet" or "Half A Glass". I told her I'd consider it.

I lingered over my supper, then dropped by over at Anker's to see if I might find Wil or Sim, or perhaps even Fela; it was the only part on the University side of the Omethi River where I might not be gutted on sight. No such luck. So back to the moneylender's I wandered.

She opened the door very, very slowly to me. Just a crack.

"You'll have to bunk somewhere else."

I nodded. "Might I ask why?"

"I'm with a client."

She was only half-dressed. Someone was paying off their debt by unscrupulous means. I gave her a tight smile and said, "There's a gutter somewhere around here with my name on it."

"Ordal's ignorance..." Seemingly from thin air, Devi produced a talent and shoved it into my chest. "Find an inn, you mongrel."

Then the door was closed to me. Forever? For the night, at the least.

An inn I found, and I bought a bottle of brand from the innkeeper before heading up to my room. The talent paid for all. I drank a little off the top of it, then a little more... and before I knew it, the bottle was half empty. Stopping myself from a splitting headache come morning, I then crawled into bed and spent a few minutes replaying what I remembered of the song I'd written for Devi.

It was a sad, empty song. And I loved it.

_To Be Continued.._

* * *

><p>NOTE: What does anybody think? Is it too weird... or just weird enough? I'll probably be wrapping it up in the next couple chapters. R&amp;R please!<p> 


	8. Nearer To Happiness

_Chapter Eight - Nearer To Happiness_

The next day I went to see Devi at some point in the morning. She shooed me away.

Later that evening, we hosted a repeat performance of the previous evening in which she would rather pay me to get lost than deal with any aspect of our terrible truth. Away I went to the same inn and the same bottle of brand.

The day after I fared better. She asked when I could pay back the money I owed. I told her soon, and she nodded and slammed the door. As you can see, my definition of "faring better" is relative, but as it turned out that she _was_ my relative, how could I begrudge her?

It was the day after this that I knocked and she yanked it open with a put-upon sigh. "If you agree to leave me alone, I'll drop your remaining debt. More than fair, I'd say."

"It isn't fair and you know it."

"What are you doing here?" she said in wonder as I stalked past her into the room. Our room. "Why can't you take a hint?"

"Because we have much to discuss that remains."

Devi grinned at me. Just like a bear woken from too early hibernation before it eats your head. "We don't. It seems plain to me what must be done here. You and I? We never existed to each other. We aren't lovers, friends, family, any. Just customer and shim-gall."

I winced at the less-than-affectionate term. "That must be nice. To be able to chop it off like a gangrenous limb."

"Very apt analogy, Sir Bloodless. Now scoot."

"I'm sorry, Devi," I told her firmly. "This is... beyond the realm of insanity, but you have become a part of my life now. A true, integral part. I'm not throwing it away over-"

"Over what?" She strode up to me and pressed herself flush with me, face pointed straight up into mine. "Say it. Say it right now while we're so close I can feel your heart hammering."

It was a very long second. There were so many things I wanted to do and say, but what could I? My hand reached up to cup her cheek... but I stopped it. Because it was too intimate.

"Don't you love this?" she said dismally, even though she was smiling. "Don't you love what we're turning ourselves into? Reasons to hate. Reasons to hate the whole of everything."

"Devi..."

Now my hand did go to her cheek; it needed to be there. She leaned into it, and a tear leaked down the other one. Her lips curled back in disgust... but she put her hands on my waist.

"We're going to die," she said miserably as she let me press her head into my chest. "Someone's going to kill us for this one day. Even if that someone isn't you or I, which it may very well be."

"It isn't our fault, though!" I insisted violently, as if speaking to the universe. "We are blameless in this. Maybe, if my mother had ever bothered to mention to me that she once had another child before..."

"SAY IT."

I didn't say it. I ground it out, as between millstones. "You're my sister."

"Ah!" she gasped miserably, sobbing already. "There we g-go. That... w-wasn't so hard, now, was it?"

"What else do you want me to say?"

"Say that we're related by blood, Kvothe. Dear brother Kvothe, son of my mother. Say that we're linked by it, that it's possible we even have the same father for all we're privy. Two yield from the one union."

My teeth gnashed as I clutched at her skull. "Why? What good will it-"

"And then say that I took you to my bed," she wept onward. "That son and daughter lay together and did the most vile thing they might. That we're sinners in the eyes of Tehlu and every one of his angels."

"We are," I admitted. There wasn't any point denying that much.

"And then say that you don't care!" she urged me suddenly, ravenously. "Tell me it's okay that we are, that you don't care over that part, and th- and say we're still going to be together in spite of it! Laugh at it, belittle it, make it less consternating! Shuck me like an ear of corn, have your way with me, spread me over my mattress like I'm a dyed silk shirt drying in the sun, and laugh at the absurdity of life!"

My arms encircled as if to crush. For a long several minutes, I held her still there, making no noise of my own while she vented her emotions onto me but merely rocking back and forth and staring at the bed behind her. The bed where we had broken laws of decency and morality.

So warm. Her body was warm and pliable as always. How was she not Devi, the woman I'd shared of myself with? Where was this Devi The Sister I'd been hearing so much about? I couldn't find her anywhere I looked.

But when we kissed, there was emptiness. The texture of it was more real, colder and yet hot as fire. But the emotions behind it were confused, and it felt empty. So we kissed harder, searching out the other person - they were in there somewhere. We found nothing but our own selves, hating what we did and how good it felt.

Much the same could be said of the next quarter-hour. It was explosions, it was passion... and through it all, we were as two people separate, not one entity expressing its symbiotic joy. Very little has happened to me before or sense that rivaled that in awfulness.

As we sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the floorboards and not talking, something occurred to me. This might very well be the reason swinging from the limbs of one's own family tree was frowned upon as it was; it felt akin to falling.

"Kvothe, just tell me."

"Tell you what?"

She stood and walked in front of me, hands on hips. It doesn't take an Arcanist to guess what was at eye level, so I turned my head... until she forced my face back up by grabbing my hair and yanking. "Look at me, you idiot! LOOK!"

"What, what?"

"Am I..." Her face fell a little as she forced her words out. "Am I not appealing to you anymore? Because of what we are?"

Perfection is what she was. But I couldn't feel it anymore. I knew it, and I believed it... but the feeling wouldn't come.

The next second she was kneeling on the floor, forcing her head into my lap. I shoved it away, and she shoved back, and we did this until she held my hands away with her own, determined to proceed.

"Devi, please don't do-"

"Make me your whore," she told me, voice broken and forlorn. "Just make me do whatever you need from me, and I'll do it, and then we can keep being together in some way. It's all I'm worth to you now, b-but I'll take that over nothing!"

I yanked her up by her own hair, partly in retaliation and partly out of urgency to end that line of thinking. _"NEVER."_

"Brother..." It was plaintive and quiet, her neck exposed from where she hung loosely by her own strawberry locks, eyes like my own wide and terrified. She gulped to coat her parched throat, then said, "Slit it."

"What? Enough, don't be ridiculous."

"Rend my throat. I'm sure you can think of one sympathetic binding or another to do it. Spill my life-fluids and then you'll never have to spare me a moment's thought again, and I won't have to live with this agony."

"Stop this or... or I'll..."

"Or you'll what, Brother? Slit it? I already asked for that. No fair copying... I'll tell Father on you."

Roughly, I threw her onto the bed and smothered her body with mine. But I did not do as she asked. Instead, I merely cried and latched onto her as if she were the wind escaping from me. And after a long moment's tension in her entire form she also latched onto me and we cried, together we cried a thousand and one tears.

And I kissed the side of her face, light and chaste, and it was almost as it was before. The darkness refused to flee, but it was beaten back into its own corner. I felt her legs curl around mine, threading through and around as her arms squeezed my back, feeling the scars there with her fingertips and panting in my ear.

But nothing more happened than that. We did that for a long time before we stopped trying altogether and simply held each other, unending rivers flowing down our faces. Slowly it became sweeter, as the more we felt each other the more we remembered how we felt within. There was no sudden breakthrough or snapping-to, but we grew nearer to happiness.

"It still feels so amazing," she whispered, lips against my shoulder. "I... it's disgusting to think what we were doing, but at the same time... lying here next to you, feeling you sheltering me, I'm... it feels so _right_. It's wrong, but it's right? What in Tehlu's..."

Eventually, we burrowed under the blankets, not bothering with clothes. No more was done than gentle hands in innocent locations, and yet still guilt hung over us like a dark cloud. She pressed her back into my chest, and I felt every inch of it down my abdomen, the slight bumps of her spine, the warmth and cushion of her posterior. It was most of what I desired, wrapped up in her lavender-scented packaging.

"I love you, Devi."

"No, Kvothe. You don't."

I bit her head through her hair, and she let out an amused yip. I then kissed the spot by way of apology. "Sorry, but I do love you. Even if I can't define it any more clearly."

Her voice was hushed, almost reverent, when she whispered, "Is that so?"

"It is."

"Fine. But I'm telling Da that you bit me, too! He's gonna tan your hide but good!"

Reluctantly, we both giggled.

_To Be Continued..._


	9. Beautiful Irony

_Chapter Nine - Beautiful Irony_

That is how we awoke, painted against each other, warm and safe. In the few seconds before reality encroached on us with its pointed, unforgiving blades, we kissed deeply and passionately, and it was no more or less wonderful than it had been. Then, of course, we parted as we remembered everything else, and Devi bit her lip to keep from crying afresh. We released our limbs and backed away from each other, staring, thinking, dreading.

A wonderful thing happened next: Devi said, "I'm cold."

Easy as that, we were embracing again. It was still raw and unclean, but not so greatly as the day previous, and only a whit of how illicit it felt the night we discovered the truth. Our affection was turning the tide back, defeating reservations and propriety. No matter how much I looked at her skin and thought about how its tint perfectly duplicated my own, I couldn't let it stop me anymore. Because I knew the person inside it was the person I was destined to be with.

"So, Little Brother," she ventured, voice shaking. "Are you up for some early-morning games with your big sister?"

I rolled my eyes toward the headboard. "Must you put it that way?"

"You're right," she said with a smile. "You're anything but little."

"Devi!"

"Yes, I must put it that way," she told me seriously. "Because the sooner we come to terms with it, the sooner we can forget how difficult these past days have been." A pause, and then, "I'd say 'difficult' is woefully inadequate to describe it, but trying to think of a better word only makes the pain double in intensity."

"I missed you, too." I sighed as I pushed a stray lock of hair away from her eyes. "But why did you have to take that debtor to your bed to spite me? I hadn't tried to hurt you on purpose."

Devi's brow creased. "That really wrong-footed you, didn't it? I'm sorry, Kvothe, I just... I was feeling so- I wanted someone to scrub that dirtiness away somehow. Not that it worked. And... I expect you did the same. Found Denna or Mola or one of your-"

"No."

"No?" she echoed, surprised.

"There wasn't anyone to find. All I want is here."

"Even knowing?"

For a long moment we stared at each other, into identical sets of emerald-and-golden irises, both of which had taken on a lighter cast; we were afraid in equal parts. So much of me was in her... did it mean falling in love with her was vanity? We were so selfish that we could only care for someone who mirrored ourselves?

But I knew that was bilge water. Devi and I had grown up entirely apart; we saw the world in similar ways only because of the things we'd endured, not because it was etched into our souls from birth or impressed upon us by our parents. My sunny outlook had been marred by the Chandrian slaughtering the Edema Ruh, by my three years in Tarbean living off castoffs and orts in the gutter and sleeping on rooftops. Her own heart had been hardened by growing up without a mother and being ousted from University, forced into an occupation she'd likely never have chosen simply to survive. Our journeys had been our own, and it was mere coincidence that they paralleled. That we were not only physically but emotionally well-suited to each other.

"Please don't," she hissed as her thumb wiped my tears away. "I can't stand it when you fall to pieces. You're typically so strong, and watching the mask shatter and fall away... it's like I'm the one shattering."

"But I want my mask to shatter. Only when I'm here, though. When I'm with the one I love."

Devi's hand jerked back and she glared at me, accusatory and frightened. "God's body, stop it! You had better be blasted sure that-"

"I am. As sure as you were."

"You can't love me - not as anything more than sister! I don't believe you!" Her voice became a little more hysterical, even as she tried to calm it. "I don't believe you. You're just saying these things to soothe me. Always looking out for others at the expense of yourself."

"Feel this," I said as I placed my hands on her chest, fingertips just curling over her shoulders, feeling the continuous thud of her heart inside. In response, she did the same as if I had asked her to (and I suppose I might as well have). "This connection... it is deep and true. This past month has been a dream - most recent span notwithstanding. But don't you see? Even during that darkness, I glimpsed your light at the end."

"What of our identities, Kvothe? We were grown in the same womb. It's sickness incarnate for us to be more than family." But her tone was hopeful. She didn't know how to justify our loden-stone attraction, but wanted nothing more than for me to discover and give voice to the proper words. She yearned for it with everything.

"We've always made up our own rules, haven't we?" I said with a hint of a smile. "Damn convention and and the church's approval. You're my Devi and I am in love with you, and I need no more."

"Then kiss me." Now she was defiant, sounding more and more like the woman I knew her to be. "Kiss me, and if I don't feel yours or my own gorge rising from it, then maybe you're not entirely cracked."

In one fluid motion, I took her mouth and enveloped it with my own. Truth be told, even at that point I was fearful that all my words would backfire, that I would have built my heart up only to have it impaled by the harsh realities of our bloodline. Instead, it felt so much sweeter even than our first kiss had so long before because now it was more than a bit of fun. Now we had battled through an intimidating barrier, one that few broke or circumvented, and still we loved, still we belonged.

Depraved as you may think it, part of me wondered if she was so dear BECAUSE of our relation. If that made her so much more important to me. But I brushed that idea aside; whatever the reasoning, I knew I could never shut her out of my life anyway. She was necessary.

"Such beautiful irony," she giggled a few minutes later, fingertips at my chin, light and fleeting. "That I should ache for both family and a man's touch, and find them both in the same place. If anyone finds out, they'll sing bawdy songs about us in every inn and tavern throughout the Commonwealth."

"Then let's hope they don't so we never oust 'Tinker, Tanner' as the reigning favorite."

"Of course not," she laughed - a true laugh this time full of genuine amusement, wiping most of her anxiety away. Not all of it would so easily be dismissed; that would take time. Her impish grin remained as she reached down to caress my backside. "But let's give them plenty to sing about in the unlikely event it happens."

"You know," I began with a slow grin, "If you add a single 'L' to the end of your name... yes, I think I begin to understand how you tempted me."

"Please," she gusted. "Do you honestly think you're the first to notice that? So oblivious, and yet so... _MMM."_

I'll not deign to tell you what the _"MMM"_ referred to, as I'm sure you might guess anyway. And, as I've stated before, I consider myself a gentleman.

_To Be Continued..._

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><p><em>NOTE<em>: Okay so I think I've just about exhausted this topic. Nobody's reviewing anyway... which either means the subject matter is too weird or there just aren't enough Kingkiller fans out there yet. This chapter was the big climax, the next one is more like an epilogue I guess (but it's the last one however you want to look at it). See you soon!


	10. GreenEyed Devils

NOTES: Well that's it! I enjoyed writing this, it was a little outside the norm for me which made for a fun challenge. Hope you guys liked it - please review and let me know whether I crossed too many lines or if I got it juuust right! :D

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><p><em><span>Chapter Ten - Green-Eyed Devils<span>_

It would be a long time before I left Devi's room and began searching out my fortune in the world. There were still many things I meant to take care of, but starting a new family with her... it healed a lot of the hurt I felt over having lost mine to begin with.

I told her very little of my quest to seek out and bring an end to the seven dark ones led by Haliax. The less she knew, the safer. I consented to give her the barest details so she would not think me running off to do silly stupid things; now that we ourselves were family, she should fully appreciate that I must avenge my - our - mother. She did protest, of course, implored me to forget such things and remain with her in tranquility and love. But I could not. Not yet, at any rate. In the end, she understood more than anyone else who I'd ever told.

After lingering by her side as long as my restless nature would permit, I left Imre. Discussions of what I endured on the road will come once I have exhausted the topic of Devi, so for now let us focus on that. Occasionally, I made time to return to her for brief reunions, which became farther between the more time went on. Such is the way of this world.

Not once did I ever forget her. Never for more than an hour. My sense of duty was not so strong as that.

There came the day when I made my way down that alley, up the stairs behind the butcher's shop... and she was gone. Her room had been let to another, some man who had no idea who or what a Devi was and chased me off his doorstep. Where could she have vanished to? In her defense, I had been gone for quite some time since my last visit. I searched high and low in Imre and never found her there, so again I left, after telling a few key residents (such as Deoch and Count Threpe) that I had tried to find her and still wanted to. Then I resumed my travels.

Twice more I returned to Imre, searched, inquired. Those who knew Devi had heard vague hints of her leaving town and nothing more, and the number of people who knew Devi and were willing to discuss her was quite a low one. I remained unsatisfied, but moved on with my life.

Finally, once my heroics were at an end and I had solidified my status as a legend, I found my way back to Imre and inquired one last time. That's when I heard tell that there was a Devi who owned an inn near the University - the Horse and Four. Once upon a time in the hazy hallways of memory, it had been the grandest inn that side of the Omethi. How on earth could it be her?

Still I went. All the way as I walked, I said to myself that it wasn't her. I said there was another Devi, I said I had misheard the name and it was Davia or Denni or Eva, something along those lines.

Then I barged in and found her seated at the bar with a fork raised halfway to her mouth. There was a tiny rivulet of grease making its way down her chin. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

"Kvothe?" she asked quietly from across the room. Then she was running, wiping her mouth as she went and sailing into my arms.

"It's been a long time," I whispered into her hair.

"Too long." She drew back and kicked me in the shin, and I grunted even while I smiled. "I was right when I labeled you a vagrant! Where did you go traipsing off to?"

"Here and there," I said blithely. "Keeping busy."

A wry smile pulled at her lips. The years had been kind to her; just a few new wrinkles near the corner of her eyes. Laughter lines. "So I hear, Kvothe Kingkiller. Not that I believe a word of it."

"What about you? The Horse and Four? You own this?"

"I'm selling it," she amended sourly. "Don't misunderstand, I love running an inn, but this close to the University... it starches my bloomers to serve all those pompous lords and dandies that were afforded more opportunities than myself. Perhaps I'll settle in Tarbean, or further away to Anilin..."

"Come with me, then."

Devi grinned a tired grin, smoothing out her apron. She now dressed much more the part of an innkeeper: modest, plain clothing, functional shoes, a kerchief covering the top of her strawberry-blond hair. "No thank you. I'll not be needing any adventures with all manner of beast and fae."

"You misunderstand my intent. I'm through with all that, as well. I've had enough of it for six lifetimes." A cheery grin sprang to my face. "It's as if you read my mind: innkeeping."

"Really?" She looked me up and down, eyes narrowing. "You? PAH! Never in a moonage could you settle to polishing bottles and scrubbing counters, not when there are Amyr to chase down!"

"Then allow me to prove you wrong." I hefted my purse and shook it next to her ear, not loudly enough for any other customers to hear but so that I knew she could tell the exact weight of coin. "Hear that?"

"Kvothe, how in hell did you?" she gasped, eyes wide; it proved her copper-hawk days had not faded from memory entirely. "Did you take up with highwaymen? With that much silver, we... we could nearly buy TWO inns!"

"Let's settle for the one," I laughed. "But far away. Far, far away from here... we'll wander until we find a small location in a pointless town. Off the beaten path, out from under the harsh scrutiny of cities and soldiers. Doesn't that sound perfect?"

Still smiling, Devi cast her eyes away. "So you're not unawares, I... I took a husband."

What does one say to that? "Oh."

"He's gone," she followed up quickly, swallowing, still staring down at her shoes as if waiting for me to chastise her. "You needn't worry about seeing him ever again, to be frank; he was an idiot. Just thought you ought to know that I didn't wait for you. Part of me did, which is why my marriage didn't work out... but not all."

"A few women have graced my bed, as well," I admitted. It's likely I wouldn't have if she hadn't been first to speak up. "When I couldn't find you in Imre, eventually..."

"Completely understandable."

I embraced her again, gently, as if she might break. As if we might break if I let myself act with haste. "None compared with my sister," I whispered as quietly as I could into her ear. "They didn't even amount to pale shadows."

Her hands went to my biceps and pushed me back. "This isn't going to be like slipping into an old shoe. You realize that, don't you? We are both of us different than when we last crossed paths. I'm another woman altogether, and you... you are a bonafide mythical figure!"

"Which is precisely what I'm weary of; it's not really what I wanted in the first place. There were just things that needed doing, and being a hero was the easiest way to go about them. But now that I'm finished with it... I am FINISHED with it."

"So the plan is to find some backward valley town, build an inn and settle? For Kvothe the Arcane?"

"It is."

"And how will you break the news to your swooning followers?"

I grinned. "Why should I? I plan to take a new name... maybe Kote, or Kilvin. Go into hiding."

"For how long?" Now her voice was resigned, as if she'd done all the pointless busywork and arrived at the true crux of her argument. "You make so much noise of leaving your heroics behind to take up with me anew. When will you lapse? When will you return to being the Kingkiller and leave your poor sister in the lurch?"

"Never." At her exasperated sigh, I frowned and cupped her face. "This isn't a flight of fancy, a qualm because I've become disillusioned within the past few minutes. I'm through. It's been a slow decision building for months upon months. Now I should dearly like to begin the life I've ached for since my parents were murdered; one of relative peace. With the one I love."

Devi gaped at me for a long moment, then smiled a wry smile. "There's that charm of yours seeping in. I wondered if you'd just keep lamenting your stupid trials or if we might see some of it yet."

"Come away with me, my green-eyed Devil," I joked, and she laughed. "It's a venture I plan to start with or without you, but... it shall be all the more lonely if I'm to do it without the fairest maiden within the four corners of civilization at my side."

"Maiden!" she cried, laughing yet harder. "Who are YOU looking at? I'm an old, worn-out hag!"

My voice full of mock reproach, I drew myself up to my full height and said, "Still your tongue! Those are dueling words! Speak not of my beloved in this fashion or we must cross swords!"

"You couldn't best me in your wildest fever dreams," she chuckled. "But... if you're serious, stay with me for a span here at the Horse and Four. If you haven't fled in that time, half-cocked and ranting about demons, I'll CONSIDER selling this place and following you wherever you go."

"Ah." I shifted uncomfortably. "About that... I absolutely must skip down to Tarbean and see to-"

"Oh, I knew it!"

"Sorry!" I laughed. "Small jest; I've nothing to see to. Don't lose your kerchief over it, eh?"

Lips pursing, she pinched me hard - somewhere I shan't mention - and smiled a tight-lipped smile. "You're lucky I'm in a forgiving mood, you cur."

"Not for the mood... but I am lucky." And up the stairs to her room we went.

Flying in the face of her predictions, stay I did. She was surprised when I brought along another guest, but she sighed and said that he was welcome so long as he didn't cause any trouble. When her probationary period was up, she expressed vastly more surprise when our guest was determined to tag along with us on our journey, but I assured her he would not interfere between us nor be a nuisance; he was my assistant, not some stray mongrel. Thus, the three of us - myself, Devi, and Bastas the Fae - made our blundering pilgrimage toward the insignificant hamlet of Newarre, where the Waystone Inn was born.

None of the villagers knew anything of our past; merely that we were a couple who had run an inn "someplace away yonder" and had decided to open a smaller one in a smaller town, tiring of the city life. It was a plausible backstory they could respect. I was not a bloodless force of nature, Devi was not an ex-gaelet related to me through a common mother, Bast was not Son of Remmen and over a hundred years old despite looking nearer twenty. We were three innkeepers and no more.

There we lived, happily cleaning and wiling away afternoons together. For a time. There would arise rare occasion for me to take up a sword again, but by and large we were content. I and my sister, and our friend the Fae.

And a bit later, little Gavina. We made sure a 'V' made its way into her name, as you might expect; we had to carry on the tradition.

Every evening without fail, Devi and I would finish sweeping up and turn off the porch lights, lock the front door, and make our way upstairs. Bast would bid us goodnight after all three of us had checked in on Gavina (following her birth, of course). Then we would go to sleep in a canopy bed exactly like the one we had shared in her first place of business. And every evening, kissing each other, we would speak the same words, always with laughter dancing in our identical sets of eyes.

"Goodnight, Big Sister."

"Goodnight, Little Brother."

And the world was naught but Kvothe and Devi.

_THE END_


End file.
